The Contract of the Century gets a younger brother

A preliminary contract for the development of gas of deep bedding was received on March 14 by partners to develop the block of offshore fields «Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli» in Azerbaijan, the head of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR / SOCAR) Rovnag Abdullayev said.

Abdullayev said that this time the agreement will be signed with a minimum guarantee of compensation (Risk Service Agreement), in contrast to the first contract for the development of the «ACG», that observed a production sharing agreement (PSA). This scheme will increase the energy reserves of SOCAR, leading to higher assessments of SOCAR, as international oil and gas companies evaluate companies by their reserves.

The head of SOCAR said that gas reserves in the deep-lying «ACG» are estimated at 300 billion cubic meters.

The «Contract of the Century» on the development of a large offshore field «Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli» was signed in 1994.

Equity participation is distributed as follows: BP (operator «Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli») - 35.78%, Chevron - 11.27%, Inpex - 10.96%, AzACG - 11.65%, Statoil - 8 , 56%, Exxon - 8%, TPAO - 6.75%, Itocu - 4.3% and Hess - 2.72% (sells its share of Indian ONGC, the transaction will be completed in the first quarter of 2013).

Adapted from Vestnik Kavkaza